Steven Pinker and Rebecca Goldstein Interviewed at Salon

Steven Pinker (author of The Blank Slate) and Rebecca Goldstein (author of The Mind-Body Problem) were interviewed on Salon.com today.

Here’s what the intellectual powerhouse of a couple had to say on religion:

Do both of you consider yourselves atheists?

[pause] GOLDSTEIN: Yes.

PINKER: Yes.

GOLDSTEIN: Proud atheists.

PINKER: There, we said it. [Laughs.]

So you have to hesitate for a moment before you use that dirty word?

PINKER: Atheists are the most reviled minority in the United States, so it’s no small matter to come out and say it.

…

But can you really equate religion with astrology, or religion with alchemy? No serious scholar still takes astrology or alchemy seriously. But there’s a lot of serious thinking about religion.

PINKER: I would put faith in that same category because faith is believing something without a good reason to believe it. I would put it in the same category as astrology and alchemy.

Those are fighting words!

GOLDSTEIN: [Laughs.] He said it, not me.

The rest of the interview is fascinating, too, if you’re into that “intelligent conversation” thing.

(via A Whore in the Temple of Reason)


[tags]atheist, atheism[/tags]